There were just murmurs of India's advantage playing their ICC Champions Trophy matches only at one venue -- Dubai.
But the cricket fraternity has now started to speak up over this what some claim is 'unfair' advantage.
Australian Test and ODI captain Pat Cummins, who was sidelined from the Champions Trophy due to injury, on Tuesday said India have a 'huge advantage' being based in Dubai for the Champions Trophy while other sides criss-cross Pakistan for their group games in the tournament, being held under a 'hybrid model'.
'Obviously it does give them a huge advantage playing on the same ground. They already look very strong and they've got that obvious benefit of playing all their games there,' Cummins told Yahoo Australia.
Former England captains Michael Atherton and Nasser Hussain questioned India's 'undeniable advantage' in the tournament in a Sky Sports podcast.
'What about the advantage that India have playing only in Dubai?' Atherton asked. 'It seems to be a hard to quantify advantage but an undeniable advantage by playing at just one venue.'
'They don't have to travel either between venues or between countries like a lot of other teams have to do. Therefore, the selection can focus in on the conditions in Dubai and obviously they'll know where they are playing their semi-final as and when they get through to that,' Atherton added.
'That seems to me to be an undeniable advantage but it's kind of hard to quantify how big an advantage.'
'It is an advantage. It's for the best team in the tournament to have that advantage,' Hussain asserted. 'I saw a tweet the other day saying, Pakistan host nation, India home advantage, and that sort of sums it up really.'
'They are in one place, they are in one hotel, there is no travel, they are in one dressing room. They know the pitch. When they selected they probably knew what Dubai was going to be like,' he added.
'They picked all their spinners. There was a bit of debate even from the Indian media saying why haven't they picked an extra seamer why all these spinners. We've seen what and why,' Hussain said.
'But all the sides have to pick for different conditions -- Karachi, Lahore, Rawalpindi, Dubai and they have to travel and adjust to those conditions.'
'So it is an advantage but once India refused to come here to Pakistan, what else could happen? You cannot have a tournament like this without India and Pakistan, that's not going to happen so they had to be in Dubai and they sit happily and comfortably there knowing that they will probably play six games there and if they win all those, they'll win another global tournament,' Hussain stated.
The reactions from Indian fans were sharp...
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